I got the tranny disconnected and started to lift but the engine is stuck. There's not enough room. Not sure what to do next.



Here's a nice pic of a friend of Sam's who came over to check things out.

Lift-off (out) postponed

I thought the engine/tranny was connected to the frame with three engine mounts, two bolts on the side and one connection in front. After removing these three connections I started to lift. Something didn't feel right. I looked under the car (again) and noticed that the tranny seems connected to the underside.

Thanks to a post on a VWvortex forum, I now know that I need to remove 2 bolt connecting the tranny to the floor plan. Maybe tommorow.

10-9-8...3-2-1 Lift off (almost)

We (Stu and I) disconnected the axle from the outer CV joint (basically disconnected the axle from the wheel). The only thing left connecting the engine to the car were the engine bolts . We connected the lift, removed the engine bolts (holding the engine from the frame) and started to lift. The passenger side started coming up higher than the driver which didn't seem right. Also the intake manifold hit the frame. We ran out of time. But at least we're doing something interesting.

Out of gas (tank)

Stu and David came over today. Made progress. We got the gas tank out. Apparently, did not get all gas out of tank. No smoking at our house for a while please. Postponed trying to disconnect transmission from cv joint due to one lousy stinking bolt/screw (see previous post). Instead we're going to disconnect axle from wheel, lift the engine and then try to disconnect transmission from axle.

For photos see:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/kf5VrOUFx1JQ5FvQmzBORA?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/G4g56dIXwqUpbtMMJHEpJg?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9SD77l7e7LUtXk5FO1RDkA?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OItLGJQclehoJ-YVNXE-8g?feat=directlink

1 more @#$! bolt

Buddy David came over again. We got all the bolts except for one off the tranny on the passenger side. That one bolt is the only thing keeping the engine in (except the engine mounts themselves). If anyone has tips, secrets etc for hard to remove bolts, now would be a good time to share. I would be most appreciative.

We gave up on that bolt and went to the rear. We have to drop the rear axle assembly to remove the gas tank. We got both shocks/coils off and loosened the four bolts keeping the bracket in. It shouldn't be hard to get the thing off from here. Getting it back on will be another matter.

The point of no return

I've never been confident that I'd succeed with this project. However, until now, I could have the car (or what's left) towed away. I'm about to drop the rear axle. At that point, I'm not sure it can be moved. I suppose there are ways to move wrecks. Still I have the sense of getting in deeper and deeper.

A tribute to engineers

Working on this car has given me an appreciation for engineers. Given what we put our vehicles through, they are amazingly reliable and durable (that point came to me when I could not drill a hole in the gas tank).

Why they need so many types and sizes of bolts is beyond me, but there must be a reason.